A state of strongly-interacting matter characterised by high energy density and temperature is predicted to be formed in ultra-relativistic collisions of heavy nuclei. According to calculations using Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) on the lattice, these extreme conditions lead to the formation of a Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP) state, in which quarks and gluons are deconfined,
and chiral symmetry is partially restored (see e.g. [1]}, [2]}, [3]}, [4]}).
